Tom
Cruise, Scientologist, denies he put any pressure on Viacom management (who own
Comedy Central [which shows South Park] and Paramount Pictures [which owns Cruise's
latest movie, Mission Impossible 3]) to get them to pull an episode of South Park,
a repeat of "Trapped in the Closet", an episode which ridicules
Cruise and The Church of Scientology.

Regardless
of why it was pulled, the episode was pulled by Comedy Central.

South
Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone gave the following statement to Daily
Variety:

"So,
Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for earth
has just begun!

"Curses
and drat! You have obstructed us now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will
fail! Hail Xenu."

"Trey
Parker and Matt Stone, servants to the dark lord Xenu".

Despite
the firm denials, the rumor that Cruise had threatened to stop promoting MI3 unless
the South Park episode was pulled, persisted, and South Park fans are now threatening
to boycott Mission Impossible 3.

Scientologist
Isaac Hayes, who vocalises the Chef, was killed off in what the washingtonpost.com
called a "slapped-together 10th-season opener."

The
Chef is reportedly killed off in the episode "The Return of the Chef".
The words spoken by Chef were made up by cutting and pasting lines recorded by
Hayes before he apparently quit.